Lately, I've been watching youtube shorts that get recommended, and as you watch certain shit more stuff like that gets recommended obviously. I've watched all sorts of this shit like the "open carry interactions", and the "DUI checkpoint not willing to give my info" , and the "cops schooled on the law (usually about trivial shit like do i have to hand over my license, usually just priviliged white people fucking with cops which I love). One fun one is the Daily Driven Exotics which detail the interactions of usually foreign folks in supercars getting stopped in america and mostly their fault entirely.

I've embedded one of these below, this video struck a nerve because it's different from my experience in 3 years in california. I don't know any cops but maybe someone who does can comment on whether it really makes a difference that someone is driving a hotrod car fast with traffic versus a "regular" car. I can tell you I've recently driven on Northern and Southern California roads regularly at 80 - 110 mpg and never seen a speed trap or someone pulled over for speed. The only thing that seemingly gets enforced are HOV lanes with their $500+ fines. I drive an "arrest me red" Pontiac Vibe which is a super basic car but I just hit the car's "speed limiter" when I hit 115 and suddenly my revs dropped to 800. California law enforecement actually has a policy that promotes "traffic efficinecy" over speed. I think the only people i've seen pulled over for speed in cali are mexican or black probably.

I know Pinback has lived in CA and Dr. Tacos who might even have been able to drive then. Did you share my experience of never seeing speed enforcement in CA or is this something new do you think? Do folks who have had hot rides (I think just Jonsey with his wrx or him and Flack for their bikes) experience more cop fuckery?

When you are driving 80-110 mph, what is the speed limit on those roads?

I see speed traps in Oklahoma if not daily, at least multiple times per week. 99% of the time they are not on the highway/turnpike, but rather on roads that lead to/from the highway/turnpike. For example, on my drive to work, I take I-40 to MacArthur, and then MacArthur up five miles to work. I never see speed traps on I-40, but see them at least once a week on MacArthur. The speed limit on MacArthur is 45, but everybody does at least 55. The last mile before work is a big blind curve that we call "FAA NASCAR" where people race and jostle for position in a pointless contest to see who can be the first person to work. A couple of times a month, a cop sits behind the bushes on the curve, waiting to pop people.

Same goes for Sara Road, a four-mile stretch of road that didn't even used to have any houses or anything. I think the speed limit on Sara Road is 50 and people used to do 80 until cops started hanging out there. Easy pickings. For what it's worth, Sara Road runs parallel to the turnpike, and I've always suspected that handing out tickets on Sara Road is a sneaky way to get people to take the turnpike, where they almost never give out tickets. I guess you pay either way.

Not to compare apples and oranges, but Oklahoma does not have emissions testing, nor do we have safety inspection stickers. The highway patrol has to get their money somehow, so if they're not getting a little bit from everybody, they've got to get a little bit more from fewer people. Again, you pay either way.

When I had my WRX, and definitely on my motorcycles, I get followed a lot, or at least more than I do in my other cars. My red and white R1 was like a magnet when I would drive through town. The speed limit down Main Street (Route 66) is 30mph, and more than once I had a cop fall in behind me and follow me the entire length of town while pickup trucks, minivans, and sedans passed us in the left lane.

One of my wife's relatives is a detective, and used to be a patrol officer. I once asked him during dinner if he targeted specific speeders and types of cars over others, and he talked around the subject. I don't know the guy that well so I didn't push the issue, but he did eventually say, "a guy who can afford a Corvette can afford to pay a ticket," so there's that.

As of a year or two ago, Oklahoma had highest percentage of uninsured motorists (25% -- 1 in 4). They're easy to spot, and a bigger threat to public safety than people doing 5-10 over the speed limit. Based on what I see pulled over on a daily basis, I think that's who cops are more interested in getting off the streets.

Ha, so... it might be my maturity as a driver that got me pulled over.

From 16 to probably about 37 I would say I averaged getting pulled over 3 or 4 times a year. Back then I was very much in a hurry, all other drivers sucked, etc. The car I got pulled over all the time in was my Red 1996 Neon. When I first moved to Colorado, I didn't get it registered in Colorado. Only the registration lapsed in New York as well. One piece of shit cop impounded the car and left me to fend for myself on the side of the highway. (This was before I had a cell phone, 1999, I think.) He wrote me up for no registration, speeding, lane shifting too often (not a real crime) and not using my turn signal, which I ALWAYS do. It's a computer programmer / "the world should be like this" thing, so I knew he was garbage. Although don't get me wrong, I wasn't exactly not at fault here.

And when I did get pulled over, I got a ticket every time.

I haven't been ticketed since moving downtown 3.5 years ago. I haven't been pulled over in the new car in 14 months of owning it, but I also just hit 7,000 miles. Driving less is the biggest impact on getting pulled over. But also, I just don't care any more. I leave with enough time to be early for things. Nothing in life is important enough for me to speed to get to. I just. don't. care. Triste, non?

When you are driving 80-110 mph, what is the speed limit on those roads?

Mostly the freeways which are 65, though there are some back roads around that are 55 but I still can hit 80ish.

Towns here do speed traps though and I did get stopped once for a 47 in a 35 in Concord but let off with a warning. Only other stop in cali was when I cut off a cop who was merging into my lane and I didn't realize my registration was suspended, he let me off with a "fix it and get off" ticket so all good. Side rant: the California DMV is the worst I've seen in any state i've lived in (SC, VA, NY, WA). It should be a crime for registration on a 17 year old economy car to be over $160 and they can't even schedule any Saturday DMV hours. Where is all that money going to? Not to the roads because fucktard California voters keep giving blank checks for more and more gas and dmv taxes. Somehow california is being allowed to run a billion dollar budget surplus while continuing to pick the pockets of regular folks who are struggling to get by here.

ICJ wrote:Back then I was very much in a hurry, all other drivers sucked

I don't speed because I care if I'm late to something (I don't), mostly I speed because I can and it's fun. And other drivers do suck, they all do.

ICJ wrote: not using my turn signal, which I ALWAYS do. It's a computer programmer / "the world should be like this" thing, so I knew he was garbage.

It's funny to me you say that. I don't think there is a higher saturation of computer programmers anywhere (except maybe Bangalore) than the bay area and nobody here uses turn signals (on the freeway). Sure, if someone is planing to make a turn on a surface street then there's a nonzero chance someone will use a turn signal. But on freeways the mindset is: dickishness. If someone sees someone trying to change lanes, their goal is to prevent that by speeding up and blocking. Fucking california assholes.

Oh, that. Yeah, I haven't had a ticket since... 2004? 2005? And that was for speeding on (you guessed it) Sara Road.

I've been pulled over twice since then, both times in my darkly tinted truck. Once was because I "had a headlight out" (I didn't -- we checked; it was a running light) and the other time because the cop essentially said he wanted to see inside my truck. Boy was he surprised when instead of drugs or weapons he found a bunch of Star Wars and Nintendo stuff. (I was moving at the time.)

Legal tint here is 25% on the back/rear windows and 35% on the sides. Every time I get a car tinted I get 10% because it looks better. Any time a cop gives me a second look I roll my windows down and wave. 45-year-old overweight white guy isn't who he's looking for.

And also, yeah. When I drove a Mustang, I got pulled over all the time. When I drove a Firebird with the word FORMULA across the door, I got pulled over all the time. When I drove my Dodge Neon (blue, not red), I got pulled over all the time.

Never got pulled over in our Honda Odyssey. Never been pulled over in our Crosstour. Never been pulled over in my Flex.

Also never got pulled over in my Geo Tracker, but to be fair, it was almost incapable of speeding.

One time around 1995 I was driving from Arlington, VA to Kalamazoo, MI in order to meet a lady I'd met online. Anyway, I rented a Grand Am, a nice sports car and fit me even with my potbelly. So this car moves nice, really nice. I'm driving it on the Pennsylvania Turnpike at a leisurely 85 mph. Then I notice one car I pass has a rack on the top.

Oh Shit.

I didn't even wait for them to trip their lights, I was already pulled over by the time the blue lights came on. I just sat and waited for the State Trooper to walk up. He asks me for license and registration so I lean over and get the rental agreement out of the glove box, and I go looking for my license, which is supposed to be in my bag but I can't find it - the bag - in with all the crap over the back seat. I'm explaining to the trooper how I normally drive my sister's van, a very heavy minivan (true), I just rented the car that day and had been driving for about 10 hours (also true), it rides very smooth and quiet (absolutely), and I hadn't realized how fast I was going (total bullshit). Then I found the bag, my wallet and the license.

After he goes to run my license and come back he says to me, "We were doing 65 and we didn't expect someone to blow our doors off." He stops for a second to think. "Look, there's a rest area a couple miles down the road, why don't you stop there for a few minutes." I say I absolutely will. And he lets me go without writing me a ticket. When I got to the rest area I pulled in and got a soda, and drank it.

The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that no one learns the lessons of history. tdarcos@tdarcos.com

When I had to go to court once in Virginia over a missing inspection, I noticed the state troopers were always reporting everyone they pulled over on the freeway for speeding at no more than 74 MPH. Then I realized what it was. The speed limit was 55, and going 20 or more MPH over the limit in VA is automatically reckless driving, so the troopers always wrote everyone for a maximum of 19 over.

The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that no one learns the lessons of history. tdarcos@tdarcos.com

Thought I'd take a pic of something that happens every day or weekend, outside of rush hour. If I bothered doing a video you would see I'm not even gaining on traffic at this speed (except for the pussies in the right lane). There are simply no cops doing speed enforcement on CA highways, it's unreal. I've been stopped outside of Rochester on 390 for going 66 MPH, this is crazy. But I like it and it's one of the few good things about this state so I'll have fun with it. Gotta do something about the check engine light though, I guess.